


The Ending You're Happy With

by kireiflora



Category: Until Dawn (Video Game), Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)
Genre: Fix-It, M/M, Survival Horror, Time Loop, Time Travel Fix-It
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-12-15
Updated: 2017-11-15
Packaged: 2018-09-08 05:46:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 3
Words: 7,898
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8832778
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kireiflora/pseuds/kireiflora
Summary: What started as a relaxing getaway weekend, a gift from Christophe, dissolves into a battle for their lives.Again...and again...and again. OrThe Until Dawn AU nobody asked for but I wrote anyway.Until Dawn knowledge not needed, but it helps.





	1. The chosing

**Author's Note:**

> Let me just explain why this exists. It was the final day of Nanowrimo, I needed 13 thousand words to finish. I struggled through a few thousand, that became 'for the love of a dog' but I still had 8 thousand to go and every idea that was coming to me died after 100 words if that.
> 
> And then, I remembered, I'd thought of doing an Until Dawn AU earlier in the month. So I just went for it.
> 
> IMPORTANT: Every line break is a POV switch. Just for this first chapter though. You can skip to the last one if you really want to.
> 
> This was meant to go up yesterday but episode 11 killed me.

You're staring into the jaws of death, wondering what life choices you made to end up here. You just went off to a side cabin to look around with Phichit who wanted as many pictures of as many places as possible, and you elected to go with him. You were standing by the door and then you were pulled and dragged screaming all the way and you’re half sure Phichit has come after you. And then your jaw is ripped off and you’re lying on the cold grate of an elevator, dying if not dead already. You hear Phichit in the distance, calling your name.

And then suddenly, you’re sitting outside the ski lift.

You bolt to your feet, looking around in blind terror, wondering what on earth just happened, and the door bangs.

You jump and spin, but it’s just Minako and Victor, telling you they’re locked in, again.

You have a sense of deja’vu when you open the door, their conversation is a bit different this time but still, you decide to stay and see when Phichit shows up, and you wave them ahead.

They look a bit worried at how you’re acting but nod and go on.

You spend the rest of the night in a daze, barely saying anything, worrying everyone and thus the entire group is still in the cabin when the monsters swarm in and tear everyone apart.

\-----

You’re limping your way back to the cabin, shooting the strange monsters whenever you hear them bursting out of the bushes. You get to the door but it’s still locked and you bang on it.

Yuuri stands there, staring coldly at you, and that’s the last thing you see-a slight change of expression-before you’re dead.

And then you’re sitting next to Minako on the lift, baffled and scared and confused and she’s wondering what on earth is wrong with you, _you’re_ the one that spooked her ten minutes ago.

You come back to the choice, between your long friend Christophe and your crush, Yuuri. You choose to save Yuuri this time, and he sobs against you all the same when Christophe dies.

You don’t leave to check on Christophe this time, it hadn’t mattered last time after all, and you have a perfect view to watch as Yuuri is torn apart, face twisted in agony, before they come for you as well.

\-----

You’re spending the weekend with your idol! You don’t know how you got so lucky as to be invited to the cabin with the rest of them but you are, so you are happy to help in anyway you can, even if that’s going back out to look for Yurio’s bag with him.

Later that night, you’re looking between Yurio’s terrified-angry face and safety, unsure what to do, you try to save him once but the tower shakes and you get scared so you jump to safety first, intending to turn around and grab him.

He falls down the endless pit with the tower before you have the chance.

You wander the halls, tired and scared and cold, and you find Mila, she’s banged up to hell and back and terrified out of her mind and you’re scared to ask what happened to her, she tells you there’s a monster in the mountain anyway.

You see it, and you’re filled with terror, and you take off running.

You hear Mila die, screaming as it rips her apart as she struggles to keep up with you.

You burst through some boards you can see light through, you barely take in the sight of the pre-dawn light on snow on the mountain before you shimmy along the edge, and the creature leans out, looking around and you don’t move a muscle and it doesn’t see you.

You both could’ve lived if you hadn’t panicked and left Mila. It hits you like a punch.

But how were you to know?

You find out Yurio survived the fall, but died when Minako set the house on fire, that you saw on your way down, in a terrified rush out the door.

You find yourself, back in the cabin before you’d even left to look for the bag, you feel like puking.

This time, in the tower, when you hear the snapping sounds of cords, you grab Yurio’s arm as tight as you can, grabbing onto the window frame with the other.

He stares up at you in shock as the tower slowly tips over, you hold on as tight as you can but you weren’t intended to hold people up like this, you doubt you can hold him long enough.

He slips out of your grasp and you lose sight as you struggle to keep your remaining grip as the tower falls.

When it finally does you look around frantically for him, and he’s in a marginally better position this time. You manage to grab his arm, and start pulling him up-and the tower shakes. You jerk your entire body, toss him on the ‘safe’ section of land, and you feel weightless for a moment before gravity kicks in and you see Yurio’s wide-eyed terrified eyes for a second, and then you’re swallowed by darkness.

You feel yourself hit something-pain-and then nothing.

You wake up, and your leg _hurts_ tears are in your eyes in an instant and you look down and- _oh_. You’re not going anywhere. The bone is sticking out of your leg and you’ve never wanted to unsee something more.

All you can do is curl up as best you can and sob. You try to stop yourself but between the cold and the pain and everything, not even terror can keep you quiet.

The pain shoots up to a new degree and your eyes snap open at the same time you scream and you see-its one of the whatevers, it had pushed at the bone.

You barely process that before its claws slice into you in new ways, but none of them lethal.

And then it _feeds_.

It’s not long before you’re beyond thought, sobbing brokenly but you lose the ability to do even that.

You feel yourself drifting from probably blood loss, and you fling yourself as fast as you can into the black abyss.

\-----

You’re staring in horror as Christophe dies to one of the monsters, and you can only flee, you might not have liked him after all of this but he didn’t deserve his head to be crushed like a grape. You hurry to the house and run into Minako, you head down to the tunnels with her, and people burst past you up the door. You look through the doorway and see two making their way up, you rush over and lock it, and hurry after the others. You nearly bump into them when you find them frozen in the main room.

It’s the one that killed Christophe, looking around the room. You hear the other two come up and they start fighting, the big one throws one of them at the wall by the fireplace, the gas line breaks.

You look to Minako, then the line, then the light, as the plan comes to you, hoping she gets the message, she nods slightly and distracts it and you put the plan in motion.

Behind you your friends are escaping.

Minako bolts for the door when it’s looking for you, and you’re lifted into the air and tore open and tossed aside.

You find yourself back at the beginning of the night, wondering why everything went so bad so fast, it was supposed to be a fun weekend.

You take a chance, you keep Christophe in the cabin with the rest of you.

You see your best friends horror stricken face when Victor dies in front of him again.

You’re reminded of his face when you’d dragged him from the door after Victor was decapitated after trying to check on Christophe. He’d tried to bolt out after him-you’re lost in your thoughts when you die.

\-----

You’re irritated at the kid that was invited, but he’s older than you and eager to help so you can’t really be that mad at him.

Later that night you’re dangling above a chasm and you know Minami can’t reach you but that doesn’t stop you from snapping at him to do something to save you because you’re terrified out of your mind.

The last thing you see is him unconscious as he’s knocked off onto the landing and then you’re falling and you don’t have the time to worry about him and-

You groan as you wake, head aching and you realize, your suspended upside down, and you fight tooth and nail away from death, and death, and death.

You get bit in the shoulder, but you can see the cabin and you just go, you can make it.

And you do and you know you sound crazy but you can’t stop telling them everything that just happened to you, trying to leave out unimportant details and Yuuri looks so terrified as he asks about Minami and all you can tell him is that you got seperated. He feels responsible for the kid, you know.

Victor goes off on a stupid suicide mission and Yuuri waits for him, and he brings him back to the safe room and everyone just sighs and takes a breather.

And then suddenly you’re being ganged up on, your terrified friends terrified of you and the bite you got and you insist its fine, it doesn’t work like that, and they’re trying to throw you to the dogs and a gun is waved in your face at one point but you stand firm you’d rather die by bullet than ripped apart by those things.

Phichit goes after Christophe to get the key so you can get off this stupid mountain.

Minako finds out something she deems important enough to go after him for and you’re irritated but you go along with it, who knows what could happen if you’re here alone?

Victor catches up to you in the tunnels before Yuuri does. You feel ill, and you know, you just know, Yuuri is dead. Victor doesn’t seem to have noticed and you head back, and he seems sure Yuuri will be there waiting for you at some point.

It’s not until you make it all the way to the safe room that he breaks down.

You do your best to comfort him but he’s like ten years older than you and you don’t know what heartbreak is like yet, you give him false hope that he’s just lost somewhere and he’ll turn up but you know it’s not true.

After the cabin is blown up, you get confirmation from Minako that he’s dead. She saw his body.

You find yourself, staring at the kid on the way to get your bag.

You promise not to leave Yuuri behind this time.

It doesn’t even come to that, you die in the elevator. Your last thought is gratitude that it wasn’t the grinder that had been haunting your thoughts.

\-----

Everything is weird, there’s some weird creepy slasher horror movie like going on around you, people are bleeding and bloody, and there’s supernatural creatures out for your guts.

It’s all you can do to try and save those that remain, Victor’s dead, Mila is said to be dead, Minami is missing, Yurio is bitten and bloody but he’s a fighter, Phichit is shaken and missing a finger and has a wolf at his side, but is fine, Yuuri...well he clearly wishes he was dead but you’re not gonna let him go that easily.

You piece the pictures together bit by bit, flamethrower guy was mildly helpful and the bite Yurio has isn’t going to do any harm, you keep a tight hold of Yuuri as you traverse the tunnels, you’re not losing him to his grief. Eventually you find a way to climb up and you send him back with Yurio, who is also keeping a close eye on him you can tell.

You find Phichit, thankfully, save him, he saves you, you find Christophe down in the deep tunnels, you climb up a sheer face and trust Phichit to get him out, you run towards the cabin once it’s in sight and-Phichit is there. The look on his face tells you Christophe died horribly, you don’t have time to focus on that as you hear the screeching. You head down towards the others but they burst past you and you see two more coming and follow them. Only to stop in your tracks not much further.

The big one is here already, looking for you. All of you. The other two climb up from the safe room and they start fighting, blindly attacking anything that moves.

Phichit looks at you, the pipe they just broke, the light. The dots connect and you nod, you move, draw attention, and freeze.

The creature roars in your face.

You want to cry in pure terror but this night is almost over.

You hear him crack the light, and it bolts towards him, you move again and it’s right there, looking for _you_ again.

You barely hear the creaking of people leaving.

It screeches that unholy screech an inch from your face.

You can’t help it, you flinch.

And then its entire arm is through your stomach and you can’t think.

And then the building blows up.

Phichit laughs next to you on the ski lift.

This time you don’t go after Phichit to tell him what you’d learned. This time, you see Yuuri die when you glance back as you all bolt away from the windigo that had somehow still found the path to you.

You can tell the moment Victor realizes he’s gone-he spins in place and you grab his arm, shoving him through the door and pulling it closed.

You’re dead in seconds.

\-----

All you wanted to do was give them a bit of a scare, a fun time, something to laugh about later. Yeah, you went overboard with the fake blood and all the pigs and the choice between yourself and Yuuri for your oldest friend.

You really did just want to help him get together with Yuuri along the way.

Even the whole thing with the gun, you figured he’d never shoot Yuuri, not in a million years.

Besides, everything was perfectly controlled, nobody _could_ get hurt.

And then Phichit shows up, missing a finger and raving about how Mila is dead. How there’s a creepy dude on this mountain, and what the hell do you think you’re doing.

You quickly explain, none of this was supposed to happen.

People are still mad at you but less so than they were five minutes ago, you still get banished to some stupid storage shed with Phichit looking over you.

Until both of you hear Yurio screaming his head off as he runs towards the cabin, and he bolts to investigate.

You really think it was unnecessary to tie you up, but you sit and pout, surely Mila will turn up and this will all be forgotten, you probably lost a few friendships but not all of them.

And then you see _it_.

Your breath catches in your throat as you stare at the white….humanoid...thing moving towards you. It’s limbs are far too long and it moves like a bug, and it’s staring at you and there’s no way it doesn’t see you.

But it doesn’t, it continues to look around.

You relax just slightly, the chair creaks, it’s head snaps to you and you freeze again _It can’t see._ You realize, but it can hear.

It inches closer towards you curiously, and you don’t know how long you can hold your breath but you’re sure you’re about to find out.

Until the stool creaks and breaks and you’re on the floor and you know with stunning clarity you’re about to die.

It moves towards you and your vision goes dark.

You wake up, in some kind of underground tunnel, you’re not sure if you’re dead or not but you get moving, not like you have any other option.

You stumble, lost and confused and probably going in circles because your head hurts so much and you’re sure you’re hearing things and you probably need a doctor and something strong for your head.

And then Phichit and Minako are there. Minako starts climbing up out of the cave while Phichit leads you back another way, you’re both moving through the underground lake, when Phichit disappears under the water.

Your heart goes in your throat and you finally realize _Oh, this must be what got Mila._ And you’re not moving, praying it’ll get out of the water and not notice you. You’re sorry for Phichit but what could you possibly do?

It jumps out of the water at you and you feel pressure on the sides of your head-

You’re staring with wide eyed terror at Victor who’s just fallen into the cabin and is grumbling.

You tell him how to let the rest of you in and then you just sit there, deep in thought. Maybe this is your chance to fix it?

People are starting to argue again and people are getting ready to head out but you stop in the middle of the room.

“Nobody is leaving.” you say, they all look at you. “I had some cruel pranks planned.” you start, which isn’t the full truth, “But I’ve realized that was a poor decision.” your mind spins a bit, “Pretty much the whole mountain is booby trapped, except this cabin, well mostly.” you can trigger some things. “It’s not safe to go out, there’s a blizzard coming.” you add at their silence.

Victor gets on your side pretty easily, and then Yuuri, and then Minami, and soon you convince the whole group to stay.

You insist people be quiet without being obvious about it, but it doesn’t matter.

You hear a scratching sound from the basement, and then there’s two or three in the cabin and it’s over before you can even begin to do anything about it.

\-----

You wake up to darkness, you hear Victor calling your name worriedly and call back, before long the lights come on and a voice tells Victor either you or Christophe will die, he chooses. And then a huge blade starts spinning and slowly moving towards you and all three of you are screaming in a panic.

“Victor!” you cry, terrified out of your life but unable to voice the wish that he saves you instead of his friend. You don’t want to pressure him into something he’ll regret.

“I-I…” he looks back and forth and looks at the saw which is nearing the split. “I-I’m sorry Chris!” he jerks the lever one way and you turn your head away as the blade nears the panicking Chris. You’re sure nothing will actually happen but...

You feel hot blood splatter all over you.

You’re numb as Victor rushes to your side and pulls you down, guiding you out of the room and telling you not to look but you look anyway and oh god-he’s only _half a person_ now.

You feel like you’re about to throw up.

You run into Yurio and Minami outside, they look at you, covered in blood, in mute horror.

“Wha-”

“There’s a crazy dude on this mountain-Chris-I..” you stutter out, mind spinning.

“We need to call for help.” Victor speaks up.

Minami frowns, “None of us have signal.”

“The radio tower, it can get through to someone right?” Yurio asks.

“That’s it!” Victor nods, “Let’s go.”

You pause, “Wait what about Minako?”

Victor turns back to you, “We should...go back to the cabin and check for her…” he looks at Yurio worriedly.

“We’ll go to the tower than!” Minami pipes up. “He can’t be everywhere at once, we’ll be fine.”

“Stay safe, both of you.” you reply, looking at both of them.

You and Victor go back to the house to find Minako, and you realize he’d rushed out of the house for you with no care for Minako. _Of course neither of you have any clue if she was even in the house at the time._ Your mind adds. “I know...you probably don’t want to hear this but...thank you.” you don’t want to remind him his friend just died but you can’t _not_ thank him.

“Don’t mention it.” he mutters, both an acceptance and a statement.

You nod and you move throughout the house, you become more and more sure it’s haunted, things are happening, things are moving, you’re seeing things, but Victor doesn’t seem to notice any of it and you wonder if you’re just going mad from the stress.

Eventually you find Minako, passed out in a chair. You’re both whispering angrily to each other and you take your eyes off him for a second and when you turn back there’s this guy in a mask and you lash out at him in terror but he gets some kind of mask to your face and you go limp.

You wake up, bolted to a chair and see Victor across from you in a similar situation, only he has an arm free and there’s a gun on the table.

The voice quickly explains, one of you will die. Victor gets to choose which one, for the second time. Or you can both die, it adds helpfully and more of those horrible circle saw blades start moving down from above.

Victor is staring at the gun in abject horror for longer than he probably should given the whirling blades. He picks it up and points it any direction other than either of you, even shooting up at the blades like he could stop them with just a bullet.

“V-Victor,” you drag his terrified eyes back to you, “You chose me once tonigh-”

“I should choose you again.” he nods, determination set.

“No-no Victor,” you shake your head quickly he completely misunderstood where you were going, “I just meant, you should save yourself.”

Victor looks at you like you’re speaking gibberish. “Yuuri.” he starts, ‘I...I can’t possibly shoot you.”

You struggle against the restraints, “Don’t you dare- _dare_ even think about shooting yourself!” you shout, because Victor can’t die, there’s no way you can allow that to happen if there’s anything you can possibly do to stop it.

“Only one of us has to die.” he shakes his head, pulling the gun up towards his own head with a shaking hand.

“Vic-Victor no!” you cry, tears flowing, “I can’t watch you kill yourself because of _me_!” you’re desperate you can’t let the man you love die for you. “I love you!”

That gives him pause, there’s silence besides the blades. “I-..Yuuri.” his hand shakes more before it steadies suddenly. “I love you too, that’s why I can’t possibly shoot you, and why I have to save you if I can.”

“Can’t you see it’s the same for me?!” you thrash more, “Shoot me!” you demand.

He shakes his head, and you see him pull the trigger very slowly.

The room goes dark suddenly and you scream and you hear him scream but no gunshot and you’re thankful for that.

And suddenly Phichit is bursting into the room with Minako behind him and she unties you while he pulls Victor out and you’re confused but you jump towards Victor and pull him into the tightest hug you can and refuse to let go, even as the guy with the mask walks in and he tries to shoot him to no effect and he pulls off the mask and its _Christophe_ and you want to punch him.

Phichit _does_ punch him, screaming about how Mila’s dead.

Christophe has never looked more confused and he tells all of you what his plans were, and Phichit looks only slightly less murderous but you can think clearly enough to know that clearly nothing that happened with the two of them was his fault, he did everything with Minako, you, and Victor, and sent the others off. He might’ve had plans for them later, but for the time being it was just you three.

They get mad at you for pointing it out until you add on. “That means something _else_ is happening here!” and that sends a chill down all their spines.

Phichit still doesn’t trust him not to do something dumb, doesn’t quite believe he had nothing to do with Mila, so takes him a bit away from the cabin to watch.

The remaining three of you sit there, you and Victor cuddled up and just enjoying each other's presence, the fact you’re both alive.

You bolt off the couch when you hear Yurio though, bolting towards the door and he shoves his way in and pushes the door frantically closed, looking terrified out of his mind.

“Yurio! What happened?!” he doesn’t even get mad at the name.

“I-I was with Minami and we-he-” he takes a breath, “We can’t get help until dawn because of the storm, but then the tower fell and he jumped off and we got seperated and I got lost and-” he swallows. “I heard so many screams, not human screams, and there was a man with a flamethrower who told me to get out and I ran for it but one of them was after me and-” he shudders violently, “I barely got away, I nearly fell in a wood shaver.” he turns pale at this admission. “I nearly got grinded to nothing….” he repeats, eyes going wide.

Minako kneels in front of him. “Calm down, don’t think about it.”

“What do you remember about Minami? Was he okay?” your heart cracks at the news Minami was missing, he’d been so happy to be invited to this and now…

“I don’t...he was fine when I saw him?” he offered.

Phichit bursts in and sighs, “Yurio!”

There’s a banging on the door.

You’re in a bit of a daze about everything going on, everything the man spills, windigo, can only see movement, don’t like fire, so many small details get filed away in your brain.

And then Victor declares he’s going looking for Christophe.

Your heart freezes into ice, and you try and convince him not to but he’s adamant, and you finally just pull him down into a kiss before he goes. “You’d better come back.”

“For more of those? How could I not?” he smiles at you and your heart races and then he’s _gone_.

Minako stares at you like she’s waiting for you to bolt after him but you know you’d just distract him so instead you sit with Yurio, talking to him and trying to get him to calm down because you’re pretty sure he’s going into shock or something.

It feels like an eternity later that you start hearing shots. You bolt to the door Victor had gone out of and you can make him out in the distance, jumping over a fallen log and then turning and shooting at something you can’t see. He sees you and he’s running your way and you’re struggling with the door, eyes wide and terrified at the space behind him.

A creature jumps out and he barely gets the shot off and it goes flying into the bushes, and then the door is finally open and he bursts inside and you both throw the door closed and the creature stares in your direction but doesn’t seem to see you and it walks off.

You pull him close into a hug. “Thank you.” you mumble into his neck and you’re both shaking, terrified, and Minako comes over and drags both of you and Phichit and Yurio down to a ‘safe room’ which Christophe had used as his base of operations.

You’re all sitting there, terrified in the dark, constantly checking the time, willing dawn to be here faster.

Eight of you came to this mountain and now five of you are all that you can confirm are alive.

You know it could’ve been worse, there could be three remaining here.

Phichit starts mumbling to himself. “Christophe had the ski lift key didn’t he? And you!” he spins to Yurio, “You said there were mementos of past kills down there right?”

Your blood runs cold again. “Phichit no! You can’t possibly-”

“We can’t just wait here for them to find us, we need to get _off_ this mountain!”

“We could all die!”

“I’d be going alone.” he stated firmly.

“Phichit, as your best friend there is no way I could let you go alone.” you shake your head.

“I trust Victor to hold you back.” he says and next thing you know Victor is holding you in place in a bear hug.

“Victor-Phichit no!” you toss your head back trying to hit him, you lash out with your legs, anything that comes to mind to get free. “Yurio stop him!” you beg the younger.

“It’s stupid to go down there, what if he lost the key somewhere along the way, you could be risking your life and all of our lives for nothing.” Yurio tries to convince him and your heart goes out to him in thanks.

“ _Or_ I could find the key and get us off this death trap.” he argues. “I was in that hospital, I know shit went down, these things are too strong, we need to get out of here, _now_.”

“I don’t disagree but I can’t see any real reason to go, if they don’t know we’re here, if we keep quiet, they have no reason to come here.” Yurio argues.

“We’re missing two people.” Phichit says softly, “I have to try. Maybe they’re down there.”

Even you stop struggling, “Okay.” you find yourself saying. “You should’ve just said that was why to begin with. Trying to find our missing people is important.” you add.

Phichit smiles at you, “Besides two of you are injured, you’ll just make noise, I’ll be fine alone.”

“You’d better come back to me.” you state. “I’m not losing my best friend.”

“I’ll do my best.”

You all watch him go, you feel certain he’ll be fine.

You pull Yurio into a little cuddle pile with Victor, not wanting to move, not wanting to make a noise.

Minako is flipping through a book.

It is silent.

“Oh shit.” Minako breathes.

All three of you look over at her.

“We have to warn him.”

“Warn him about what?” You demand, irritated.

“There’s dozens of them in that hospital. He’d trapped them because they were hard to kill.” she says softly, “We have to warn Phichit.”

You chew on your lip for a moment, torn, before you nod.

You all head down the path he’d gone down. You come to a dead end eventually, where he’d locked it from the other side.

Minako notices a sewer drain and you go down there instead.

Before long you notice Victor lagging behind and you remember how he’s been favoring his leg. You stop beside him but he waves you forward.

“There’s nothing behind us, you’ll find anything ahead of us, I’ll catch up.”

You feel uncertain in your gut but you nod and follow them, watching him until you can no longer see him.

And then you hear Mila, calling out for you. Her voice comes from a different direction than Minako and Yurio are going, and you take a step towards it remembering how Phichit just wants to find everyone, and so do you, so you climb up over a ledge to a different section of cave.

There’s a rattling on a trap door and you’re certain her voice is coming from there.

You stare at it for a long time, you feel very sure that you should _not_ open the door.

You open the door.

You see a flash of white and feel pain, across your neck, your chest, your arm, and you’re on the ground. You can’t speak, but you’re still aware.

You hear Victor stumbling your way and your heart breaks, breaks in a way you didn’t know it could.

He rounds the corner and sees you there, looking very dead.

You see his grief-stricken face and he takes a step towards you.

His expression doesn’t change as he’s decapitated from behind.

You finally die.

You’re staring at Victor and Christophe going around the side of the cabin, sitting next to Minako.

 _You_. You hear a voice in your head.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I tried to leave enough hints, and I hope you got it, but if you didn't it, the character swaps go like this: Josh - Christophe (though for very different reasons), Sam - Minako, Emily - Yurio, Mike - Phichit, Matt - Minami, Jessica - Mila, Chris - Victor, and finally, Ashley - Yuuri.
> 
> I'd love guesses for the order of POV this chapter was in, the rest aren't nearly as confusing I promise, we stick with this POV for the rest of the fic.
> 
> Soulmate AU fic update will be coming as soon as I can edit and get it up, unless that takes a few hours.


	2. The Devils in the Details

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> How ever long it takes, Yuuri will not give up, everyone is getting off this mountain.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well I decided to stop sitting on it and just throw up chapter two. I had a lot of fun with it.

_ You will be the one. _

_ The one? _ You’re baffled and wondering if you’ve lost it.

_ You can change things. _ Is all it says.  _ Tell me when you have an ending you can live with. _

And then it’s gone, no amount of passive-aggressive thinking in it’s direction does anything.

_ I can change things. _ You think, looking around at your gathering friends.  _ I can save them all? _ You wonder.

You’re looking at Minami and you get a sudden flash, he’s running away, Mila is hurt, Mila is being killed behind him, he bursts out into a sunrise and freezes as the creature looks around for him.

You gasp, and Minako asks if something’s wrong. You shake your head, “Just cold.” you mutter.

You have a feeling, you just saw how things went for them.

You look around the others gathered, everyone but Christophe and Victor at the moment, and you get flashes, more flashes of how things went from their point of view.

You piece them together. Minami lived when Yurio fell, Mila lived when Phichit saw her body, Christophe…you’re not sure how to save him, you don't know how he ended up down there. You glance back at Minami and you get a different flash, a flash where he died after he woke up dazed and confused in the caves.

You wonder if the voice gave them each a try and they all just made things worse. You wonder what you could possibly do to make it better.  


You shove all the gory details to the back of your mind, you can have a breakdown about it later. You have to focus. You wonder if you only have one try.  


But the voice said when you get an ending you can live with. Maybe you have as many tries as you want.

Victor lets you in and you tug him straight down into a kiss, unable to stop yourself.

Your friends are shocked around you, you’re pretty sure you hear Christophe whistle. 

Yurio shoves past both of you into the cabin, complaining about how cold it is.

Victor is looking at you, wonderfully dazed and confused but blissfully happy at the same time.

The night drags on, you’d been unable to keep anyone here, though you had been able to stop Christophe’s horror movie attempts. It’s quite simple really, you fake a full on panic attack when Victor is given the choice, and Christophe is so worried about your health he rushes to your side to pull you down, pulling out of the fake holes in the wall.

It makes you feel better about his involvement in all of this, he really didn't want anything bad to happen to any of you. It's hard to completely forgive him though, what you've lived through, what you've seen...

You pretend you didn’t know, let him beg his way out of it. Victor is pissed, but nothing with Minako happens, nothing down in the basement happens. 

It strikes you late in the evening that Phichit, who left early in the night, had found Minako down there somehow, and you bolt off without a word. You hear Victor’s worried voice behind you as you rush down the pathways, only half able to remember the way, you find a door and another door and a locked door and you throw it open and-

Phichit’s dead.

_ No. _ you think firmly, and you’re back sitting on the steps while Victor works on the door.

Okay, so you can’t stop Christophe’s plan. That kills Phichit. This time when you see Victor, you see yourself. Not opening the door, letting him die. 

Your throat goes dry, and you nearly burst into tears. You have no idea what could’ve caused that but you swear to yourself, you’ll always open the door. You don’t care what he calls you or says to you or does to you, you’re not letting him die.

Things go mostly the way they went the first time, except this time Phichit’s screaming about how Mila’s dead, her jaw was torn off. You get a very vivid flash of what that looks like and you know he’s right this time.

You don’t say no yet. You want to see what changes you can make. You got hasty last time, you might have a limited number of times to get it right, and you need to see it through the whole night to see the end results. You need to know as much as you can, what leads to what, why Mila died when she didn't before.  


By the end of the night, Mila and Yurio are dead, he never even showed up, and only them.  _ No. _ you command, and you go back.

You get more flashes, more details. Phichit had gotten nervous about some jumps, and was slower getting to Mila. 

Yurio fell into the grinder he’d been worried about. You didn’t need that visual.

Minami had a flare gun, and he shot it at the wendigo and that’s how he survived the night you assume.  


The pieces are slowly coming together.

This night you change the script, you convince them to keep Christophe close, Victor doesn’t go out, he can’t die. Flamethrower dude goes off into the night, you have no idea if he survives. 

You see the windigo outside, coming closer, you don’t know why it’s drawn here but…

It’s a slaughter. 

_ No. _

You get more details.

You decide to change the names instead. You insist on going for Yurio’s bag with Victor, Minami choose between Yurio and Chrisophe, you and Victor go off to call for help. Victor jumps to safety at your urging. You fall fall fall, you wake up, you struggle, you fight through the caves, you get bit, you make it to the cabin.

Phichit shoots you in blind terror when he learns of the bite.

You should probably feel more betrayed by that but, you guess you can understand his panic at the idea of his best friend killing him. Really though, you're just becoming numb to all the death.

You do it again, but this time you’re the one that jumps to safety. You find Mila, banged up to hell and back but alive. You start moving. You both make it out alive.

Yurio and Minako don’t.

_ No. _

This time you go to the second cabin with Victor instead of Mila and Phichit.

You learn finally, what happened with them.

You're frozen in blind terror when Victor is  _ pulled back through the window _ . You don’t even know how he survived, but he's screaming for you, and you go, you run, he’s not going to die, there’s no way on this earth he’s going to die.

You make it, he still has his jaw, he falls.

You turn and go after the man, you _need_ to know what Phichit has known all this time. Phichit knows a lot more than he's ever felt like telling you.  


You learn so much you didn’t want to. A cave-in caused cannibalism, they transformed, you find what takes Phichit’s fingers now and then, a waving hand on a trap.  _ A motion trap. For windego. _ It’s a small detail but oh so interesting to know. Kinda like wondering why sometimes Yurio doesn't get bitten.  


You befriend the wolf, you know the man means you no harm.

You go through the tunnels, you find Minako, she lets you in, you burst into the gun room where Yurio is pointing the gun at Minami. 

You get to punch Christophe, it feels good. You haven't fully forgiven him for this endless night of terror.  


You don’t run to the house when Phichit comes screaming, though you want to. You vaguely realize you’re not just swapping with the one pair, things are getting switched around more than that. You pretend you leave though, but you sit and watch.

Oh, it’s because of the damn stool.

You go through the rest of the night, you watch him die in a horrible fashion. 

Victor is the other casualty.

_ No. _

You take the place of each of your friends, Victor at your side, you live how it all goes down, all the ways it _can_ go down. You collect all the details, try to keep them straight in your head. It's not easy, it's hard to tell what's important and what's not. It's hard to be sure of how they act when you're the one in their footsteps, but you can only do your best and not give up, not settle for less. You're getting everyone off this mountain, no matter how long it takes.  


You spend one night just thinking, jotting down in a notebook while madness goes on around you. You have to figure out how to nudge everyone in the right direction, just slightly. It needs to be subtle enough they don’t question it.

_ No. _ you think before you’re even killed.

But you think you’ve got it.

“Speed is more important than safety.” you spit out to Phichit before he leaves. He gives you a baffled look.

“It’s best to be steady to save someone else.” you say to Minami. He nods like he’s jotting it down in his brain to remember forever. “It’s okay to freeze in terror.” you add, more ominously but he nods again, more hesitant this time.

You go through your mental checklist. Minami, Mila, Phichit, You and Victor, that’s five out of eight that’ll be fine if they listen to you. And those two have the best chances of listening to you, if not, no big deal. You have all the time in the world to find the right things to say to them.  


Thinking back...Minako only died when she panicked. You’re willing to just let her do her own thing and hope she doesn’t panic this time instead of possibly ruining it by saying anything.  


Yurio and Christophe...you’re at a small loss. If you fix the stool than Victor might not make it back from checking on him, or he might not make it back himself anyway.

Yurio...did fine on his own most of the time as well. You leave him to his own devices. He’s a smart kid.

The night progresses, Phichit doesn’t mention a missing jaw and he has all his fingers (you wonder what the deciding factor is with that, what makes him more curious than other times?).  


You realize what you can do about Christophe.

“I want to guard him.” all eyes turn to you but you stand your ground. “I’m the one he tried to kill twice, let him deal with that while I stand there and stare at him.” That's a lie of course, he never wanted to actually hurt any of you, but none of them know the truth yet. None of them know the monsters on this mountain. So you play it up, whatever it takes to get everyone off the mountain.  


You can see them wavering.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well most of chapter two, I decided to add some more to it so I just cut it near the end of the chapter. Hope it was worth the wait.
> 
> Next chapter, true progress towards the end Yuuri is after, instead of just getting all the pieces together.


	3. The end... ?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yuuri finds the perfect plan....or does he?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I bet nobody remembers this exists but damn it I do and I'm finishing it.
> 
> You probably wanna go back and the last bits of chapter 2 to have any idea what's going on whoops.

You win. 

Victor insists on being the one to tie him up with you, you kiss him, just because you can, as he leaves.

You watch Christophe.

“Chris.” you say.

“I’m-”

“Don’t. I have things to tell you and you need to just trust me. There’s creatures on this mountain, they will try to kill us all. If I take you off that stool you might live, but that might kill everyone else. If you stay on that stool you might be the only death.” you stare at him. “I don’t know what to do.” you admit. Things get dicey around him.

It takes him a minute to realize you’re being serious.

“Yuuri…” he pauses. “One life against seven others, is it really that hard a choice?”

“When you know the person, yes.” you reply. “I’m open to suggestions. Taking you off that stool and back to the cabin...it might draw them to the cabin. If I don’t you’ll end up in tunnels and your head will be smashed like a grape.” It won’t be long before Yurio comes screaming. “Do you have a third idea?” 

“You’re serious.” he says, “Well...I’d like for us all to survive.”

“Me too, or we wouldn’t be having this conversation.”

There is silence.

“How do you know?”

“I’ve lived this night enough times I’ve lost track.” you admit, knowing he won’t believe you. “We’re running out of time.” you add, “I might not have unlimited tries, I need you to help me think.”

“What other options are there?”

“Victor could come and find you, alive, but I don’t know if either of you would survive it.” 

“If I promise to try for Victor’s life, will you give that one a shot?”

You nod, “But why should I trust you?”

“Because, surely you know by now, that I mostly wanted to push you two together.”

“Fair enough. Plus, Victor is your oldest friend.” you hear Yurio screaming and his head snaps to it.

“I’m going to untie you, sit on the floor and don’t move when it sees you. Victor will be back with a man with a flamethrower soon. Do your best. The man cannot be saved, he always dies.” you reach over and undo the knots, rushing back to the cabin. It’s all up to fate now. Victor making shots, Chris keeping to his promise, people listening to you.

It goes...perfect. Victor and Chris both make it back, Yurio isn’t even bitten, Phichit has no reason to go back in the tunnels. 

You sit in silence.

There’s a scrambling coming up the hall towards you.

The “house fire” plan starts.

Minako panics. She bolts for the light switch. You pull whoever you can and bolt ahead of her. The  _ no _ is screaming in your mind but you’re not giving up yet. You and Victor make it out.

The others don’t.

Minami and Mila do.

_ No. _ you think, more despair than anything else.

You hold the same conversations but this time, this time you take Minako’s place in the final minutes. She’s not allowed to panic.

You don’t know how you’re so calm as the creature screams at you.

You realize something. There’s never been this many humans left to run out of the house.

You come to terms with this quickly.  _ Yes. _ you think softly. You see Phichit bolt for the door, and you move, move after him. But the other windigo distractions have already happened, you’re not going to make it. You’re grabbed right off your feet and you make out Phichit’s face.

“Do it!” you scream.

He’s never looked more pained than when he flips the switch and the house explodes into fire.

You can hear Victor scream over the sounds of everything else.

You are at peace. This is okay, seven of eight is fine with you.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I love Yuuri, really I do.
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> Okay there is more to come.
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> Aren't you glad I didn't leave you here for a year?


End file.
